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Vowel letter
A vowel letter is a letter that represents a vowel. A vowel is a speech sound in spoken language which is pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. For historical reasons there is a large mismatch between the number of vowels in English - which has up to twenty vowels (depending on the accent) - and the vowel letters, which are limited to A''' '''E I''' '''O U', and in some cases, 'Y (see below). All vowel letters have 4 basic sounds: short sound, long sound, long rhotic monophthong and rhotic diphthong. They are shown here in five columns, because the so-called “short” sound (as in trap) is shown separately before /r/ (as in carry). Two sounds of O (/ɔː/ and /oə/) have merged in most part of the English speaking world, so O has only 3 basic sounds. Note that the words “long” and “short” are conventional names. For example /ɑː/ is a long sound, but it is called “short o”. A See main article Decoding the letter A. The vowel letter a''' has six common pronunciations, as in the following examples: */æ/: and - bad - carry - happy - man - trap */æ/, /ɑː/ : ask - glass - bath * /ɑːr/: car - marble - start * /eɪ/: day - face - same - rain - stay * /eə/: aware - care - scare - square */ɔ/: ball - call - law - saw - talk - walk */ə/: about - America - England ;Spelling anomalies */ɒ/: want - watch */ɒ, ʌ /: what - wasn’t */e/: any - many - said - says E See main article Decoding the letter E. The vowel letter '''e has six common pronunciations, as in the following examples: */ /: cherry - get - pen - well */ɜː/: service - term - verb */iː/ me - she - theme */ɪə/: here - material - period */ɪ/: return - decide - debate */ə/: happen - model - problem - teacher ;End of word *At the end of the word the letter e''' is normally silent. See silent e. :Examples: :same - theme - time - bone - cute - type *The letter '''e is pronounced at the end of one-syllable words in which no other vowel is present: :he - we - she ;Spelling anomalies *catastrophe - Chile - karate - recipe E is also part of some digraphs. *"ea" and "ee" as /iː/: see - speak - weak - week - three *"ei" or "ey" as /eɪ/: eight - weight - they *"eu" or "ew" as /juː/: dew - Europe - few - new I See main article Decoding the letter I. The vowel letter i''' has five common pronunciations, as in the following examples: */ɪ/: think - fit - win */aɪ/: time - night - wine */aɪə/: desire - fire - hire */ɜː/: bird - first - girl */ə/: April - civil - cousin O See main article Decoding the letter O. The vowel letter '''o has four common pronunciations, as in the following examples: */ɒ/: long - off - on - stop */ɔː/: for - long - more - off - short - thought */əʊ/: go - home - open - phone */ʌ/: come - love - Monday - money ;Spelling anomalies */uː/: do - lose - move - to - two - who */ʊ/: woman */ɪ/: women U See main article Decoding the letter U. The vowel letter u''' has four common pronunciations, as in the following examples: */juː/: unit - use - tune - university. */uː/: brutal - June - rule - truth. */ʌ/: fun - but - butter - summer. */ɜː/: turn - return - burn - Thursday. ;Spelling anomalies *busy - minute - sure Y See main article Decoding the letter Y. The letter '''y corresponds to both a vowel and a consonant.[[Oxford Dictionaries]: Ask the experts "Is the letter Y a vowel or a consonant?"] As a vowel it has two common pronunciations in English, as in the following examples: */aɪ/: try - fly - why - my */iː/ or /ɪ/: city - easy - tiny - ugly As a consonant: */j/: yes - you - year References See also External links *"Right hemisphere influenced by speech context", Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Category:Decoding written words Category:Spelling